


Clicks Per Minute

by talesofsuspense



Series: Happy Steve Bingo 2019 [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Artist Steve Rogers, First Kiss, M/M, Post-Avengers (2012), YouTube
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-11
Updated: 2019-09-11
Packaged: 2020-10-14 12:00:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20600420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talesofsuspense/pseuds/talesofsuspense
Summary: Every time he reached a new milestone it shocked him. People loved his art, his narrations, enough to subscribe, keep coming back, and maybe tell other people about him. It honestly made him a little misty-eyed if he thought about it for too long.





	Clicks Per Minute

**Author's Note:**

> Yay, my first Happy Steve Bingo 2019 fill! This is for the square "Minor Youtube Celebrity". This was the most difficult prompt on my board, and I'm trying to fill as many as possible this year, so I decided to jump headfirst in and do the most challenging one first.
> 
> This is essentially a 2012 fic. Because I miss those days, and it worked so well for the plot. I actually originally had an entirely different, actual AU plot planned for this prompt, but I couldn't get it to work so I went back to my roots of early MCU fluff.
> 
> I came up with this because I absolutely adore artist Steve and I also find myself getting sucked into watching sketchbook tour videos for hours on end some days.

If someone had told Steve years ago that he would someday have a modest following on YouTube, well first he would’ve said “what the hell is YouTube”, but he also would’ve laughed. It’s not that he doubted his skills as an artist, he may have been humble about a lot of things, but he knew that he was good. But he never thought of himself as being entertaining enough to run a YouTube account of his own. 

It wasn’t even his idea. He’d been sitting on a bench in Central Park, sketching all the birds that were flying around, when a kid who looked not too much younger than Steve himself sat next to him and complimented his art.

“Those are good,” the kid, who Steve shamefully admits he never learned the name of, said. “You should start a YouTube channel and make some of those sketchbook tour videos.”

“Oh,” Steve said, shocked. He didn’t want to admit to not really understanding YouTube or not knowing what sketchbook tours consisted of. “I don’t know if that’s right for me.”

“It’s just a suggestion,” the kid had shrugged, holding out a hand in an unspoken question. Steve hesitantly handed over his sketchbook. Normally he’d have been guarded about it, but it was a newer sketchbook, so there wasn’t anything overly personal in it. “See, there’s a lot of good observational drawings in here, but you’ve also got more stylized things.”

Steve leaned over and watched as the kid traced his fingers around the pages, tapping twice on two stylized drawings of Tony and Natasha that he’d done earlier in the week. They weren’t realistic and they weren’t recognizable as Iron Man or Black Widow. “See these? These would make great starts to characters. My friend Julia has a YouTube channel that’s just sketchbooks tours and small videos of her sketching out her original character designs. I think you’d be good at it. You can even make some money off of it.”

“That’s cool,” Steve smiled, taking his sketchbook back. “Thanks, I’ll- Maybe I’ll look into it more.”

  
  
  


Of course, once the idea was in his head, he couldn’t entirely shake it. He wasn’t even sure why, since he’d never thought about putting his art out there before. He never even shared it with the team unless they specifically asked to see something. It wasn’t even like all of his art was overly personal, a lot of it really was just life drawings, or people in a more exaggerated, cartoonish style. He’d been doing a lot of that lately, working on his own personal style. Maybe it was the fact that he’d been feeling bored and lost lately, even living in the tower with everyone else. It felt like something was missing. Maybe diving headfirst into the art world was what he needed.

He’d thought about a name the entire elevator ride up to the Avengers’ floor. He definitely wasn’t going to publish any art under his own name. That was making himself a little too vulnerable for his tastes. Plus, then he wouldn’t know if anyone was actually being genuine or if they just said they liked his art because he was Captain America. He wanted to keep this for himself for a while, too.

He ended up settling on the pseudonym “Brooklynarte” -- a play on “Brooklynite” and “Art” -- which was a little cheesy, but it made him laugh so it was good enough. He had JARVIS help him start the setup, but he caught on pretty quickly once he made it through the basics. He made his channel a dark blue theme, doodled a quick little logo on the art tablet Tony had gotten him for his birthday, and then went to watch “sketchbook tours”.

The videos sucked him in pretty quickly and he ended up watching them for a few hours straight until he couldn’t ignore his stomach grumbling at him to eat any longer. He wandered into the kitchen to make himself a sandwich and ran into Tony and Bruce huddled over the island discussing something about theoretical physics. Natasha was sitting on the counter next to the sink, drinking from her designated tea mug. She nodded at Steve when he walked over.

“Hey,” Steve said, shooting her a little smile. He paused, opening the fridge and then turning back. “Do you know any good video camera brands?”

“Shouldn’t you be asking Tony that?” Natasha asked, cocking an eyebrow at him. He shrugged, gesturing to where Bruce and Tony were engrossed in their conversation, not even noticing either of them. “Fair enough. Honestly, don’t ask me why, but I do actually have some recommendations. I can text you the link later.”

“Thanks, Nat,” Steve grinned, pulling out the cheese and sliced ham. “I appreciate it.”

  
  
  


After he got a camera to record videos with, Steve started carrying his sketchbook with him everywhere rather than designating certain days to go and draw. He brought it with him to movie nights, to coffee shops, he even brought it with him on missions, though he left it in the Quinjet and just used it to calm his mind after battles. The team definitely noticed and he’d gotten some curious looks, but no one asked him outright why he was drawing so much. He was thankful for that.

He finished his first sketchbook after about two months. A lot of it was observational drawings because he’d noticed those were kind of his go-to when he didn’t feel particularly creative. There were tons of birds. He’d never really thought about it before, but he supposed birds were his favorite animals. There was something calming about them, but also empowering. A lot of them were rather fragile, with weak bones and small hearts, but they stood up against larger birds, defending their nests and territories. Then there were the bigger birds who soared across the sky, their wings spreading out and lifting them over everything else. It was mesmerizing. Steve could sit and bird watch for hours, and he did sometimes when there was nothing else to do. They came in so many different colors, different sizes, shapes, and feather types. Even their sounds were incredibly diverse. 

(He’d actually created a Facebook under the name Roger Stevens and occasionally posted photos of unique birds to the birdwatching group he joined. It was a little silly, but it was fun, and he liked having a group of people to discuss things not related to superheroes with. The only one who knew about it was Bruce, oddly enough, and he sometimes sent Steve articles about unusual species of birds in places like the Galapagos, Madagascar, and New Zealand.)

Beyond observational drawings, Steve did a lot of stylized drawings of people. He discovered that he really liked pushing proportions, and playing with perspective. When he went out, he drew anyone he saw who was wearing something interesting or had longer than usual legs, more voluminous hair, or bigger eyes. He drew the team too, though if he drew Tony more than anyone else, no one had to know. There was just something about the way Tony moved. It always seems so purposeful and graceful. His face was always so expressive. In the Iron Man armor, too, he moved in swooping curves, like a bird in flight. He reminded Steve of some of the ballerinas Natasha took him to see. All that to say that Steve loved drawing him. Particularly in his style, because Tony’s movements lent themselves nicely to dramatic proportions and unusual perspectives. 

The drawings of his teammates were always done so as to make them appear more like normal people and less like the Avengers. There was only one drawing of Iron Man in the whole sketchbook, but Steve figured it was okay; he’d seen the Avengers drawn in some of the sketchbook tours he watched and people would probably assume he was just a fan — which he was. 

He recorded his video on a day when he was sure he was alone on the floor. It took him three tries because he kept stumbling over his introduction before deciding to just simplify it. He titled it “Sketchbook Tour August-October 2012”, nice and simple, and then immediately closed out of the tab after the uploading finished. It gave him too much anxiety to sit and wait, or worse, watch his own video. 

The video ended up getting about 2,000 views, which Steve realized was by no means fame, but it was enough to give him the confidence boost he wouldn’t admit to needing. More than the views though, it was the comments that encouraged him to start another sketchbook. Everyone was so nice, complimenting his bird drawings and telling him he should do more stylized drawings. 

  
  
  


So he did. He created characters from monsters the team encountered on missions (missions that stayed out of the public eye). He created little comic strips about his heavily, ahem, Tony- _ inspired  _ character (Tony was definitely his most popular “character”. People constantly asked for more of him and Steve was all too happy to fill those requests. It gave him an excuse to tell himself for why he spent as much time with Tony as possible). He filled sketchbook after sketchbook, uploaded video after video, and slowly but surely his subscriber count grew until he got the notification for his twenty-five thousandth subscriber (25,000!!!). Every time he reached a new milestone it shocked him. People loved  _ his _ art,  _ his _ narrations, enough to subscribe, keep coming back, and maybe tell other people about him. It honestly made him a little misty-eyed if he thought about it for too long. It was nice, having this platform, it let him join the world in a way that wasn’t possible before. And while he wasn’t making himself overly vulnerable, it was still putting himself out there in some capacity.

  
  


Of course, it didn’t stay a secret for as long as Steve had planned. He wasn’t sure how Natasha found out, but she did. She must’ve caught him recording a video when he wasn’t as alone as he thought, or something. Either way, Natasha found out and then Steve found out she knew and, well honestly it could’ve gone a lot worse, but it was still a little embarrassing being caught out.

  
  


Tony was sitting on the couch with his tablet in his lap when Steve walked in. Steve was making his away around the couch with his sketchbook to assume his usual spot next to Tony when he saw exactly what was on Tony’s screen. It made him freeze in his path and he felt like he was immediately sweating. He forced himself to move and sit next to Tony, trying not to act out of the ordinary. Tony wasn’t even watching it yet, he was typing up a reply to someone in a message tab. Steve swallowed, maybe Tony didn’t know it was him. 

“What are you watching?” Steve asked slowly, crossing his legs and then uncrossing them and recrossing them the other way, trying to get comfortable in spite of the situation. Tony startled a little, obviously not having seen Steve come in. He smiled at him and Steve relaxed a little, a minuscule amount of tension leaking out of his shoulders. Okay, even if he did know he wasn’t mad. Steve resisted the urge to rub his hands against his thighs, a nervous tic he always had. If Tony watched it would be beyond obvious that the little character Steve had been drawing was really him. If he didn’t immediately recognize his voice narrating.

“It’s a video Pepper sent me,” Tony swiped away the messages, making Steve’s video full screen. It was his November through December video, his most-watched, and his personal favorite because of the Christmas drawings. Steve wet his lips, feeling the tension he lost come back full force. Someone had sent the video to him, he had no clue. But he was about to, and Steve was going to be right next to him the whole time. “She said she thought I would find it really interesting.”

“Since when do you find art interesting?” Steve asked, trying to keep his tone light and teasing. He knew he probably wasn’t going to convince Tony to not watch it, but if he could delay a little it somehow helped.

“Hey,” Tony protested, knocking his shoulder against Steve’s with a grin. Steve weakly smiled back. “I like art, sometimes. Besides, I watch everything Pepper sends me. And if she thinks I’ll find it interesting then I’m sure I will.”

Steve nodded his head like a bobblehead until Tony quirked an eyebrow at him and he forced himself to stop. God, it felt the temperature had risen by at least 20 degrees. He looked down at his sketchbook sitting in his lap. He was scared to open it, but it looked weirder if he just sat there watching Tony, right? 

“Do you want to watch it with me?” Tony asked, nudging Steve with his shoulder again. He was smiling and Steve tried not to choke on his own spit when he suddenly had to swallow. He regretted ever starting that YouTube channel. “You’re an art guy.”

“No, that’s okay,” Steve said because he couldn’t bear that. “I’ll just… draw.”

“Suit yourself,” Tony said, shrugging before turning his head back down to his tablet. Steve gave in to the urge to stiffen, opening his sketchbook and scratching some lines onto the page.

It was impossible to even feign focus on his drawing with Tony sitting right next to him watching his video which featured a fictionalized version of Tony. For someone as expressive as Tony, it was shocking to see his lack of reaction to the video. Although, his non-reaction spoke for itself. He went silent the whole video and Steve knew there was no way he hadn’t figured out who “Brooklynarte” was- it didn’t take a genius, and Tony  _ was _ a genius. Steve just sat stiffly next to him, shooting him little glances out of the corner of his eye every so often, not sure if he was hoping to see some sort of reaction or not.

“Well,” Tony started after the video finished. Steve immediately stiffened even more, however impossible that seemed. “ _ The Little Engineer Who Could _ is certainly a, hmm, cute… title for that series.”

Steve let the silence linger and his fingers itched for his own tablet so he could go delete every video he’d made over the past 10 months and then burn the sketchbook evidence. His cheeks felt like they were one moment of eye contact with Tony away from bursting into flames. He didn’t know what to do. Tony’s voice wasn’t exactly giving anything away. He scratched at his sketchbook idly with his pencil just to give his hands something to do. After an uncomfortable period of silent tension, Tony sighed.

“You’ve gotta give me something here,” Tony said and Steve saw him turn towards him out of the corner of his eye. Steve inwardly groaned. Normally he didn’t shy away from confrontation, but this was different. It was embarrassing at his expense. He felt like all of his walls he’d so carefully built up brick by brick were toppled all at once by one video. Still, it wasn’t as if he could run from this.

“Are you mad?” Steve asked, finally looking up at Tony. He winced at his own question. It sounded pathetic to his own ears. He could feel his cheeks warming as Tony held eye contact and he swallowed, willing the heat to go away.

“Mad?” Tony asked. He looked genuinely confused by Steve’s question and Steve resisted the urge to squirm. “Why would I be mad?”

“Well because I used you as my own character without permission and posted it online for the whole world to see. I hadn’t meant for you to see it, which I know doesn’t make it better, but it really wasn’t anything malicious, I was just inspired and-” Steve cut himself off when Tony held up a hand and shook his head. He was smiling a little, the corner of his mouth quirked up like he was trying to hold it back. Steve let himself deflate a little, his muscles groaning against all the tension they’d been holding.

“I’m not mad,” Tony said. He let out a little laugh. “I mean, I’m surprised, for sure, but I’m not mad. I guarantee there are hundreds of mean art pieces of me online, and this isn’t even recognizable as me unless you know what to look for. Obviously, being the subject myself, it’s pretty clear.” Steve pressed his lips together at that, shrugging his shoulders up. “Now don’t pull the turtle act on me, Rogers. I just said I’m not mad. I’m- Well, I guess flattered. I suppose the title is a little offensive. I mean “The Little Engineer”, really?  _ Little _ ? I’m hurt. But seriously, I promise I’m not mad. I’m actually going to send Pepper a gift basket for sending me this video. She said Nat sent it to her and honestly after having watched it that makes a lot of sense, these aren’t typically the types of things Pepper watches either.”

“Nat-” Steve choked. He groaned, falling back into the coach and covering his face with his hands. “I can’t believe she found out. I tried so hard to keep it a secret. Of course she would go around me to show you.”

Tony patted his knee comfortingly. “It’s fine. No one’s mad, no one got hurt. I guess your pride is a little wounded since your secret pet project got outed, but hey, that’s what you get for choosing a username like ‘Brooklynarte’. Your art is really good, Steve. Come on, look at me.” Steve let his hands fall away from his face, turning to look at Tony again. He still felt a little warm, but it was more bearable. He planned on yelling at Natasha later. “Seriously, I wasn’t joking about being flattered. You said you were inspired? By me?”

“Yeah, it’s just,” Steve gestured helplessly in the air. “Like the way you do stuff, and operate the armor and- and move.”

“How I move, huh?” Tony said, voice slipping into a lower tone. Steve felt his body go hot at the sound.

“Not like that-” Steve cut himself off again when Tony turned toward him even more, leaning forward so his shoulder was resting on the back of the couch right by Steve’s ear.

“Would you like some more inspiration?” Tony smirked.

“You don’t have to. I really just draw what I see,” Steve sputtered, not knowing what to do with the sudden turn of events. Tony laughed then, dropping the smirk and distracting tone of voice.

“It’s just a line, Steve, I’m joking,” Tony paused, his right hand halfway to Steve’s jaw. “Well, kind of joking. Whatever, it doesn’t matter. Can I kiss you now?”

Steve let his eyes flicker between Tony’s lips and his eyes. He had half a mind to ask  _ you want to kiss me? _ but he also really, really wanted Tony to kiss him so he just nodded, a quick jerk of his head, and leaned forward just a little, letting Tony close the distance between them. It was a soft kiss, just lips pressed against lips, but it was enough to make Steve shiver when they parted.

“I never really understood what Pepper meant when she said art was moving before now,” Tony said, and it was so ridiculous and so Tony and Steve honestly felt a little lightheaded from the kiss that he couldn’t help but fall to the side, pressing his face into Tony’s collarbone and snorting with laughter. He felt Tony’s hand come down and cradle the back of his head.

“I didn’t even know you were interested in me,” Steve said, but it came out muffled where he still had his cheek and chin pressed into the curve between Tony’s neck and shoulder.

“You’re going to have to repeat that, sweetheart,” Tony said, leaning back to look down at Steve. The endearment made Steve’s cheeks heat up again, but it was a good kind of embarrassment, and he’d take it in order to hear all of those endearments directed at him any day.

“I said I didn’t know you were interested in me. Like this,” Steve gestured between them. 

“Steve,” Tony said as he brought his hand up to card his fingers through Steve’s hair, sweeping his bangs back from where they’d fallen over his forehead. “I don’t let just anyone sit in my workshop next to me day and night. Or make my coffee for me. Or drag me around New York City to places I would’ve thought were incredibly boring before.”

“Oh, well that’s good,” Steve smiled up at him. “I mean I’d hoped, but-”

“Oh you hoped did you?” Tony grinned, leaning forward to press a kiss against Steve’s cheek. “Well, I’m glad to hear that. Now, are you going to show me what you’re planning next for The Little Engineer or what? Your subscribers are waiting but as your new boyfriend I call first dibs.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you liked it and if you did kudos and comments are always appreciated. I'm on Twitter @gaycaps and Tumblr @wingheadd if you're interested.


End file.
